The cabin of an aircraft is first intended for passengers, and therefore for integrating the seats for passengers. Thus it is the number of seats which may be integrated into the cabin which allows determination of the economic cost effectiveness of the aircraft. As competition is increasingly stronger, it is desirable to optimize at best the layout of the cabin in order to allow integration of a still larger number of seats for passengers in order to increase the cost effectiveness of an aircraft.
Now, within the scope of the layout of an aircraft cabin, in addition to the seats for passengers, it is necessary to provide a consequent number of additional functionalities, which reduce the capability of integrating the seats into the cabin and therefore the cost effectiveness of the aircraft. This may mainly be in the pressurized upper deck of the aircraft, the pilot's cabin, doors and exits for evacuation, storage devices, toilets, pieces of galley furniture generally allowing storage and preparation of the food dedicated to the passengers. The present invention more specifically relates to the case of galley furniture in their preferential customer use related to feeding the passengers and also in a use for storing various elements for the aircraft.
The galley furniture generally comprises very specific technical pieces of furniture dedicated to the storage of food as well as to their preparation. As regards the preparation of the food, the galley furniture mainly have the following functions: ovens, drink dispensers, wash basins, garbage bins, storage spaces, inter alia. As regards storage of food, galley furniture comprises carriages/trolleys which are despatched gradually depending on the needs in the cabin by flight attendants. These trolleys, provided with lockable castors, are sufficiently narrow so as to be able to circulate along a corridor of the cabin. The need for trolleys on an aircraft mainly depend on the number of passengers present in the aircraft and on the layout of the cabin according to the different classes. As an example, an airplane of medium size with a capacity of about 200 passengers requires that about 14 trolleys be provided.
The trolleys are generally stored at the bottom of the galley furniture or else, taking into account the often large number of these trolleys, in one or more additional pieces of furniture which look like simple pieces of furniture rather than galley furniture for cooking. As an example, an airplane of medium size with about 200 passengers, the 14 trolleys may be distributed in pieces of galley furniture located near the front access and evacuation doors. Therefore, the integration into the cabin of pieces of galley furniture takes up a very significant space in the cabin which prevents the integration of additional seats for passengers, and thus reduces the economic cost effectiveness of the aircraft.
Solutions have already been proposed in the prior art for limiting the penalty in the cabin of traditional integrations of galley furniture, in order to increase the available space in the cabin for integrating seats.
For example, a solution is known which consists of integrating the trolleys into the hold, by providing a lift for moving up the trolleys and having them available at the main piece of galley furniture in the cabin. Nevertheless, such a solution is restrictive since most often it requires manual assistance for moving up the trolleys and involves significant removal space both in the cabin and in the hold. Further, the requirement of providing access means makes it difficult to apply in an aircraft of medium size.
Another known solution provides an increase in the storage density of the trolleys in the cabin by superposing several levels of pieces of galley furniture, generally two or three levels, and by resorting to a complex piece of material for semi-automatic or automatic extraction, considering the significant weight of a trolley, for example of about 100 kilos. This other solution is also not entirely satisfactory since the high total height of the superposed pieces of galley furniture makes its application difficult in an airplane of medium size. Further, this solution remains complex to apply.
Moreover, it is known that the conventional structure of the fuselage of an aircraft, in particular of a commercial airplane, is to have a pressurized sealed bottom positioned at the bottom of the cabin, in front of the vertical stabilizer, and then a non-pressurized space of conical shape which is highly scalable in which the horizontal tail of the aircraft is integrated. This non-pressurized space of conical shape does not allow by design any layout of the cabin type.
A known solution is however to displace the pressurized seal bottom to the limit of what is possible towards the rear of the aircraft, in particular as far as the compartment where the auxiliary power generator (APU for Auxiliary Power Unit) is integrated, and this by shifting the horizontal tail which is then directly integrated at the bottom of the vertical stabilizer, as this is the case for example for the airplane of the Falcon type from Dassault Aviation. In this way, it may be possible to have a large additional pressurized space which is in direct communication with the cabin.
This additional pressurized space may then, in the case of an aircraft of large capacity which has significant height, be laid out quite easily. Nevertheless, in the case of an aircraft of medium size, the height of this additional pressurized space is a great penalty since it is relatively small and then strongly degressive, so that the structural layout of this space is strongly limited.
Patent application US 2005/0133308 A1 moreover describes a solution of the system for storing and distributing trolleys in an aircraft.